In mid-November, Ankush Mandavia (pictured), better known on PocketFives as pistons87, came away with a win in the PokerStars Sunday $100 Rebuy following a four-way chop. His reward was $49,000 and members of the PocketFives community landed in the top six spots.

Mandavia has over $1.5 million in tracked online poker MTT earnings in his PocketFives profile and was ranked as high as #29 on our site earlier this year.

PocketFives: How are you feeling about the $100 Rebuy? Talk about the chop too. That’s a lot of people to coordinate with.

Ankush Mandavia: It feels great. It’s always nice to win a Sunday Major. There were four good players left when we chopped and I happened to get a favorable deal, so I took it.

PocketFives: Former World Series of Poker November Niner Sam SamDMNDHolden (pictured) finished fifth in the $100 Rebuy. Talk about his play.

Ankush Mandavia: I didn’t know it was Sam at the time, but I have a lot of respect for his game. He played well and it was a tough final table in general.

PocketFives: How many times did you rebuy and what has your track record been in that tournament?

Ankush Mandavia: I don’t play in the $109 Rebuy very often except for Sundays. This is one of the first times I have gone deep in it. I did a double rebuy and an add-on.

PocketFives: Do you have any plans for the money?

Ankush Mandavia: I plan to reinvest the money into online tournaments and heads-up sit and gos as well as the live circuit. I am planning on going to WPT Montreal, EPT Prague, and the PCA in the Bahamas.

PocketFives: Last year, you won a WCOOP $530 Cubed No Limit Hold’em tournament for over $160,000 officially. How big was that tournament for your poker career? You also won a SCOOP title in a short-handed event in 2012 for over $200,000.

Ankush Mandavia: The WCOOP win was an amazing feeling. I felt like it was a huge accomplishment in terms of winning a full ring major tournament, as I usually specialize in short-handed games. I didn’t have the best WCOOP leading up to that tournament, so it was definitely gratifying.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker originally?

Ankush Mandavia: I started with $50 to $100 deposits when I was in college and mainly played cash games to run it up. I started playing professionally in 2010 when I discovered heads-up sit and gos and started to play MTTs on a more serious level during the SCOOP in 2012. I play a lot of MTTs these days because I like the challenge of a new game. There is nothing more fun than being deep in an MTT, but I still play a lot of heads-up hyper-turbo sit and gos.

PocketFives: What do you do outside of poker?

Ankush Mandavia: Family is very important to me. I couldn’t do anything I’ve done without my very supportive parents and sister and I like to spend time with them when I can. I enjoy watching and playing sports and experiencing some nightlife.

You can catch the Sunday $100 Rebuy weekly on PokerStars. If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, create one through PocketFives’ links to get a 100% deposit bonus up to $600 and one free month of PocketFives Training. Get started here.

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